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Epcot's 2007 International
Food & Wine Festival

Food and Wine Pairing

Bistro de Paris
France Pavilion

"Regional French Specialties "

September 29, 2007

Review
by
Gloria Konsler
AllEars.Net Team Member

Last
year my husband and I did the Tour de France Wine School at Bistro de
Paris. It was wonderful, but not wanting to do a repeat "school,"
we opted instead to do the wine pairings at the Bistro this year.

Although
we had an enjoyable time thanks to our amiable tablemates, the wine
pairing itself was probably one of worst events we've ever attended.
I never did hear the name of our presenter, so I can't share that information
with you. The three wines we sampled were nice, but the pourings were
on the stingy side. Some guests ask for and received seconds, but again,
they received just a bit more than a splash. I would have understood
that if the wines had been expensive wines, but these were in the $10
range.

The
wine service was a little confusing. Our tasting sheets listed (1) a
Riesling, (2) a Chardonnay and (3) a Beaujolais Villages. However, when
the servers poured, they poured the Chardonnay in the first glass and
the Riesling in the second glass. Some guests noticed the "error"
because of the shape of the bottles. When the presenter began her talk,
she said that wasn't really an error, that she felt the Chardonnay was
a lighter wine than the Riesling and so she wanted us to start with
that one.

I'd
really like to find something nice to say about the presentation itself,
but truthfully, it was the absolute worst wine presentation we've ever
sat through anywhere. If you knew nothing about wines, the presenter
didn't really teach you anything. She hit on a number of "tasting"
techniques such as looking at the color and smelling the aromas, but
she never took time to explain what more or less color meant or what
aromas you might expect in different varietals. She hinted that you
might be able to tell the age of a red wine by the color, but never
elaborated. There really wasn't anything that a wine novice could latch
onto and take away with them to use the next time they tasted wine.

On
the other hand, for those who knew a bit more about wine, she never
gave any substantial information. She mentioned that the soil and climate
affected the final product, but never elaborated on what kind of wine
rich soil might produce as opposed to the wine a granite or rocky soil
might produce. She used a lot of "wine" words but never really
wove them into useful, understandable information.

Perhaps
the most distressing part of the whole experience was that the presenter
didn't explain the basic premise of a wine pairing, i.e. how the different
foods affected the taste of the wines and vice versa. Yes, she said
some of the foods were more "oily" than others and some were
more salty, but never gave any hints as to which pairings would be good,
not so good or maybe a surprise. In addition, since she had only mentioned
the two white wines while we tasted the first course (meats), many participants
thought the red wine was "off limits" for that course. Later
after the second course cheeses were served, she asked how the red wine
was with the meats, but by that time the meats had been cleared and
many had not tried the meat/red wine pairing. On a similar note, she
said to try some white wine with the different cheeses, but by that
time many had no white wine left, having drunk it all with the meat
course. All in all, a very unsatisfactory wine pairing experience.

The
food was ample and tasty and the service was impeccable. French bread
rolls and butter were placed on the table first. Next the charcuteries
were served (French cold cuts per the presenter who couldn't pronounce
the word). I can't tell you the exact names of what was served because
the presenter couldn't pronounce the French names of the meats and didn't
know the order in which they were arranged on our plates. Basically
there were two different types of salami (one with garlic), a "white"
ham (very mild), a delicious duck pate, a chicken liver pate en croute
and another ham that was very much like Italian procuitto.

The
cheeses were equally tasty ranging from mild Brie and Port Salud to
a delicious Comte, a baked goat cheese and a delicious and salty bleu
cheese. Again, the presenter didn't know the names of the different
cheeses. The servers came to many of the tables and identified the cheeses
and explained their distinct characteristics. I heard more than one
participant comment that crackers would have been nice with the cheese.

To
summarize, the wines were nice (even if inexpensive); the food was tasty;
and our table companions were very nice. However, the presentation itself
was disappointing. For $45 per person, I expected higher price point
wines, but most importantly, I expected to learn something and I didn't.